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LifeProTips
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From what my brain knows, I think cDNA is just the DNA made by viruses like HIV. They have to make the cDNA in a host cell by having an enzyme (or a specific little tool that is made of protein) called reverse transcriptase, read their genetic material (which is RNA, which is like DNA but less stable and slightly different in composition) and make a single complementary strand of cDNA based on the original RNA. The host cell then takes this cDNA into its genetic material.
Hope that was kinda simple.
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Um. . . you are like talking logically and stuff, and the folks who are going to burn their own shoes, are not logical beings. I mean, they don't even understand why he was kneeling. They think it was a protest against the flag or the anthem (as if that bullshit matters). And they most likely voted for you know who, so logic is out the damn window with these folks.
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Unlike these comments I agree. I always try and buy things for my friend but he never accepts or he turns it into a debt that he needs to repay. The only thing I actually want is a "Thanks", but it really doesn't make me relieved if he says no to an offer I make just because he feels bad accepting, it actually makes me feel bad that he isn't comfortable accepting favours.
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Try to see it from his perspective. He does NOT see you offering as nice, he does NOT want you to offer, he does NOT want to accept your help. It doesn't matter if you don't see it that way, he does. Every time you think you're being nice, you're only making things awkward and difficult for him, because he doesn't want the help and feels indebted to you. Take a hint, and stop trying to change him to suit you. It's not nice, it's condescending and belittling.
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No, I wasn't there, which is why I'm not making broad sweeping claims. I have only said things along this line:
"I don't understand your strong view of u/JoelKeys"
"I don't understand how you can claim such a strong, broad view such as "totally"."
And, from the conversation here, it seemed to me that u/JoelKeys has discussed this with his friend with the agreement of his friend wanting u/JoelKeys to continue despite the awkwardness.
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LifeProTips
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You are exactly right. I know my boundaries, me and him have discussed it before and he has made it very clear that the only reason for him ever saying no is because he feels like he's being a burden, when in reality he wants to say yes and really appreciates any generosity and wants it to continue. I have made this very clear in my other comments but you seem to be the only one here who understands that there is no malicious behaviours going on here.
We are very good friends and have been for a very long time, these strangers are taking small snippets of information I have provided and creating this whole scenario where I am purposely ignoring my friends feelings and feel like he needs to accept any offer I make him. This is simply false, I know my friend more than anyone and through literally discussing this very thing with him, I know it's not something that needs to change.
I appreciate you defending me here, I genuinely cannot see the issue here at all
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That would require the law to define acceptable usage for every word and phrase now and for the future and is simply impractical. What if someone decides to say "made using X" instead, or any possible variant?
I find the current state of affairs quite clear and the whole with/of thing is fairly self-explanatory. Regardless, the legal response would be that no reasonable person could be led to believe that a Big Mac was 100% beef.
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There are lots of labeling requirements.
The issue is that large companies (like Nestle) want to be able to cut corners and so they lobby so that they can keep labeling in ways that make them more money. For example, you can call your product "chocolate" if it is has more than 18% chocolate in it. Some of the big food manufacturers were trying to lower it to 12%. (Not sure of the numbers exactly but they are close)
Source: in food business and deal with the government often over labelling
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LifeProTips
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Ok so define common sense.
Even if we go with the 51% definition it fails at the first hurdle because it's something comparable to the 51% most intelligent understanding and the 49% least intelligent not understanding. Saying "the majority of people understand it" simply isn't good enough because those who don't are the very people who are arguably most at risk from this sort of thing.
The "made with/of" thing is completely self-explanatory. It's not even a clever use of language - it's just a _use of language_. If I said a cookie was made with 100% British flour would you assume it was the only ingredient?
Edit: it's possible you're conflating "common sense" with "not intentionally misleading", the latter being something I'm less worried about from a definition perspective.
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My point was that if you want to legislate what is and isn't acceptable when it comes to precise language you'd better be damn sure what you're legislating because you can't make rules for the entirity of language now and forever that will work and aren't open for abuse.
Legislating what you can and cannot say is not the same as legislation around intentional attempts to mislead people and it's the conflation of these two ideas that we're disagreeing on :)
Edit: to be completely clear (because I think we probably agree on the premise here) defining what you can and cannot say is impractical, imperfect and open to abuse whereas legislating against intentionally misleading language is what we should be doing - because they are not the same thing at all.
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I've noticed it's often used when a meat product is using a single meat source instead of multiple. Like hot dogs made with 100% beef, which obviously have ingredients other than beef, but it doesn't have pork or chicken.
Don't know if that's universally the case, just an observation I've made on a couple products since I don't tend to pay that much mind to stuff like that. I just read ingredient lists.
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That happened about a week after I moved into my current place.
The guy was fishing around about which company, do I have any dogs, do I own any guns... I told him it was none of his business and that my place is secure and that anyone who tried to break in would regret it.
After he left, I called the company that he claimed to be with and they said that they never heard of him and that they don't have their staff go door to door.
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I also had this happen right after I moved into my house.
I hadn't heard of this at the time but it seemed extremely sketchy and I hate people anyway. I just told them I already had one and wasn't interested.
I looked it up later that night when it occurred to me that they might be casing the place. Called the company the next day, and they don't send people door to door.
He had printed pamphlets and was wearing a white polo, khakis, and a hat. Though I can't recall if it actually said the company name on it.
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The moment you buy a house your info is public record. I didn’t have anyone at the door but for a good 2 months after I closed I got 2-3 calls a day from home security companies. I finally asked one wtf is going on and they explained that they all watch for new home owners and try to jump on them.
I’d bet the companies that “don’t send people door to door” don’t send them themselves but do give them commission when they make a sell.
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Same here. I had just recently rented a place after moving post graduation in December. It was two weeks in and I had a dude knock on my front door one evening at like 6:30PM. He was asking about my home security system, etc. I pointed to my giant ass dog who was mean mugging him and said there he is.
Anyways, he leaves and then like two weeks later, at 6AM, my dog starts going apeshit barking. I had parked my vehicle in the garage that night before. So I guess they thought I wasn’t home and were trying to break in. But I was and saw two dudes by my front door and another walking in the backyard. Ended up grabbing my shotgun, but by that time was dog was pretty pissed and they ended up running off. My guess was they saw inside the house and saw that I had nothing but a TV on the floor and two bag chairs for furniture and decided it wasn’t worth it.
After telling the landlord, he canceled the lease and told me that it was best to go look for a new place to live where I wouldn’t be a big target as the only white dude on the block. He said it wasn’t racist, but that he didn’t want to keep having to replace the doors and windows from people targeting me to break in.
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That happened to me, too....except he showed me his ADT identification and gave me a brand new security system for free. They had this new homeowner deal. Three year contract for $73 a month. All my doors and accessible windows have sensors now. I have a doorbell camera and microphone and camera looking over my walk-out basement. They also gave me a smart thermostat and a garage door addition....all of which can be accessed by my cell phone. I love it.
...my point is that not everyone that asks about a security system is a criminal. I got a killer deal on peripherals that I was already planning on buying plus the added security of ADT.
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This thread is making me irrationally angry. Home invasion is one of the most disgusting crimes. My house got broken into years ago and to this day the sound of someone knocking on the door instantly sends me into fight or flight mode. I know for a fact my house has been cased since by these "salespeople" and I usually am too hopped up on adrenaline to deliver the epic lines I come up with when I read stuff like this.
and I'm usually in PJs when they come so I can't tuck a weapon into waistband and don't have my phone to start snapping pics of them.
but one day I'll be able to make it go down how it always does in my head
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LifeProTips
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Ehh,that really just means they know where to get some guns if they are willing to stake you out and see when you leave. Unless you have a proper safe either bolted down or incredibly heavy. Had a friend of mine have a 24 gun safe loaded down that was handily wheeled striaght out of his home during broad daylight while he was at work,lost several longguns and half a dozen handguns. Including the Scar-H he had just gotten when they came out,thankfully that turned up years later after a big drug bust.
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This is why I stopped labeling my moving boxes with what was inside when some mysteriously went "missing" when I had hired movers and was too young to understand how being bonded or having insurance worked so just called it a loss.
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Now I have either a notepad or a spreadsheet that is NOWHERE near my moving items and I label each room with a different color label and just start with number 1 and go up from there. I make sure all 4 sides of the box have a label and that way it doesn't matter how anyone places the box, I can still VERY easily locate exactly the one I need and only have to read the number. In my notepad/spreadsheet, I track what I put into the box so I can easily scan for what I need at the new place first and then go find the box with yellow label #4 rather than READ EVERY FUCKING BOX to see which fucking box has what I need in it. Fucking hell I hate moving so much but this has made it significantly less painful of a process. Bonus: movers don't know which box has what stuff and nothing has gone missing since despite a plethora of moves. :) Extra bonus: if anyone were to scope my new place as a "home security system door-to-door salesperson", there would be nothing to see.
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That's one box down =) -I think that is indeed safe-ish to lose.
Still have fibre optics and 10A power leads. I should ditch all the solid core cat5... but it's all attached to a bracket thing... and everything.
I should get rid of the 2 full height racks too... seriously haven't used more than one computer for like: a decade. I hate stuff. Less is more freedom. It's too much of a pain in the ass to get out of the place. Seriously heavy and bulky crap.
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I mean, all I ever mark my boxes with is like, “fragile,” “misc daily shit,” or “books.” Fragile is anything I care about not breaking, books are anything that I had on the bookcase that filled the box, and misc daily shit is like toiletries, bedding, books I may have been reading at the time, etc. Good luck parsing through that labeling system and finding something worth taking! I don’t even know what I’ll find half the time, myself.
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When we moved, there was some jewelry that I couldn't find. We moved everything with the help of friends, so we knew that nobody involved in the move had taken it. Months later, I found it in my kid's room in a box of random stuff that mostly belonged to my kid. I'm not really sure why I put the jewelry in there, but it was definitely a safe place for it.
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Being overly Paton Pof is just as bad. It leaks out into other aspects of your life and doesn’t allow you to really live. Double checking locked doors. Clicking the key fob an extra time to make sure and having a home alarm system are great things. But once it becomes excessive you have to stop and look at yourself. As long as you know the line between safety and excessive it’s all good man.
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Thats why I love having open carry. Had this happen twice to me so far, always a couple days after moving in to a new place. They’d come knocking and Id open it with my holster and handgun showing clearly. They’d get visibly nervous and Id turn the situation around on them and basically hold them verbally hostage. Id ask them what company they’re from, what their position is, who their manager is, what’s their store location, headquarters location, company car, employee ID, so on and so on. The first one just turned around and walked back to his car after seeing the gun, the second tried his best to answer all of my questions but obviously was bullshitting. Snapped a picture of the car and part of the plate number and sent it to the police, cop stopped by later in the week saying they caught the guy trying to do the same shit to other people.
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That's exactly what I did the last time I moved. And when I unpacked a box, I crossed it off the list so when I would find myself looking for something, I could tell at a glance whether it was still in a box somewhere.
Also, I always have a last packed/first opened box that I move myself, with stuff like toiletries, medication, etc., so I don't have to go hunting for that stuff when I get to my new place.
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LifeProTips
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Had guy come back after a sketchy attempted solicitation. I answered the door at age 14 and he was trying to sell magazines, supposedly. No clipboard or stuff, dirty cargo shorts. My dad was in the backyard raking but I lied and said he wasn't around and we weren't interested. "how old are you?" "14." "ah, so you don't want magazines either." and he left.
2 hours later, opens the front door and walks into our fucking living room. Luckily, dad was cooking dinner with a big knife right then. Guy scrambled to say he was stopping to ask what time it is.
I shudder to think of what he was actually there for. I now tell kids to say "daddy is busy cleaning his guns in his room."
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Yup that magazine scam has been around FOREVER....I got banned in BPT for making note of it and then called a racist by racist mods.
Shit head tried this on my father....he caught him trying to jimmy the side door open at 2am...fucking piece of shit broke out and ran when he opened the shades.
If you have a door to door solicitor that appears to be looking past you while giving their pitch, maybe looking into your house to see if there's anything easy to snatch....that's not a "solicitor."
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Honestly? Like the majority of people on Earth. I've lived in a lot of cities and the only time I ever locked my doors every time I came home were in a bad part of Boston and right outside Baltimore. I've spent 20+ years in a fairly populous tourist town that has one of the highest rates of crime in the state and I rarely ever locked my front door. Most people here don't, and I've never had even a threat of a break in really.
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One time our neighbors were out of town for the weekend and just left their front door open...not wide open but at least 4". I went over and knocked to see if anyone was home and got no answer so I figured I'd give it a day. They got back sunday and when I told them their front door was open all weekend they gave me this weird look and just said "Ok?" I just went back to my house.
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This kinda happened in my parent's hood. It got billed in some article as one of the "safest towns in America". Well some wise crooks started casing the neighborhood and realized nobody locks their cars at night. In the span of a weekend 24 cars were robbed including my mom's. They just went block by block opening unlocked cars and rifling through whatever they could. I think a couple of obviously empty homes were also targeted. Now everyone locks their cars and their homes.
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My fucking 35 yr old sister came to visit and every single fucking day she was there she'd leave doors and windows unlocked and then she had the gall to act like I was the problem and I should cut her some slack bc she's not used to locking doors. Bitch I live in a rough neighborhood with a toddler I have to protect. Get your shit together and get the fuck out of my house if you're not gonna do one simple task.
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Hell, around here they leave their cars unlocked and the fob in the damn car when they have the push button start. And they wonder why their car gets stolen. This has been going on around here for at least a year and people are still doing it.
Someone I know recently had her car stolen...it was unlocked, keys in the car, purse in the car. It was taken and involved in a fatal hit and run. As they drove away with it they dumped out the stuff they didn't want, like the kids car seats, right out in the middle of the street. I don't think they are going to have car insurance for much longer.
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I'm not waving it around when I answer the door, it's just tucked in my waistband under my shirt.
It doesnt matter where you live, look at all the creepy stories in this one post alone. I would wager that none of them happened in ghetto trailer park Chicago and the person posting it is a well-known drug dealer or something like that. Theyre just normal towns on normal days to normal people.
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This post isn’t really relevant to the overall statistics though. The odds of anyone knocking on your door first before trying to do something bad to you are astronomically low.
Have you had any training to be able to pull your weapon and shoot someone attacking you? Even with training, I wonder what the odds are of shooting yourself in the thigh, ass, or foot when you tuck a gun in a waistband?
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I imagine I could probably scare the shit out of some burglars if it's still dark.
Hear something rummaging around my living room, walk out of the bedroom completely nude. See intruders, start screaming and screeching horrible noises, mouth open wide. Slightly lower my stance, and charge them, continuing to scream, and watch as they do one of two things:
Shoot me dead
Or bolt right the fuck out of my home.
Though I may have to explain things to my neighbors the next day, if I don't die.
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I have actually. I'm a very strong proponent of actual professional training for anyone who owns a firearm, not just a "yeah I play CoD and I went to the range once or twice so I'm good" training.
And you're right, the odds are low, but I guarantee you 100% of the people that scenario HAS happened to have woke up that morning not thinking even for a second that it would happen. I have two young kids and a wife that i have the responsibility to protect, I'll play those odds.
Also, it's not literally just tucked in the waistband ala Plaxico Burress, its in an Alien Gear IWB, Remora sticky, Versacarry, or Undertech.
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I was about to take the bus to go see my ex one time in high school. But I realized while waiting at the stop I forgot my earbuds and I didn't want to wait the whole ride without music so I ran back to my house. I guess about the time I got to the door my mom pulled into the driveway with my little cousins. One of them tried to follow me inside but he was running. So right as I was about to head back outside he just flung open the door super fast and I nearly fuckin punched him in the mouth it freaked me out so bad. Having someone unexpected just come into your house is definitely a fight situation
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Once when I was 17 we had a new neighbour move in next door (they'd been there for a few days we hadn't met them yet).
My friends and I were hanging out by the pool at around 4pm playing some music at a decent volume (not over the top loud at all), and it wasn't even explicit it was stuff like the script, train, imagine dragons, etc.
Next thing you know, this guy decides he doesn't want us playing music anymore. Instead of coming to the house and ringing the doorbell, he decides to open the gate without permission, then walk inside our house (the front door was open as there were people downstairs) all the way into the kitchen before my mum saw him said "what the fuck are you doing here?" or something along those lines.
His excuse was that he didn't think anyone else was home and he was just coming in to tell us off.
Definitely nowhere near as malicious as some of these other stories but it's always irked me how he just wandered in without giving it a second thought. I've definitely made sure to always double check locks etc since then.
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Time for the sexist/misogynistic comment, as the man of the house, if i am home, the door stays unlocked. Albeit, i am a very heavy sleeper, but the distinct noise the door makes. I have a gun within arms reach/on me at any given point. It still bothers me sometimes as heavy of a sleeper i am, if someone were to come in, i may only wake up after the cats have hugged them to death.
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I've never had a home invasion or known anyone around here who has but I live in a small ~6000 person town on the border of California and Arizona. Honestly almost everyone in this town is some sort of tweeker so I wouldn't quite call it safe but then again I'm sure it could be worse.
I think most people around here just assume the doors are locked. And chances are if they're coming into the house to steal something, someone's gonna recognize them
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Two people broke into my house when my family was super young (I think my Mom was still pregnant with me at the time). Well I guess they didn't take into account how close we were to a military base. My Dad ran downstairs wearing just his tighty whities and holding a shotgun. Shot out the tire of their truck and then sat with them for a few minutes making fun of them while cops arrived.
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Haha my uncle has an enormous all white malamute that's essentially just a walking piece of furniture. He'll park his ass on the front porch all day and just sleep, he's so quiet and still I often forget he's there. Well one day I ordered some delivery and completely forgot about him on the porch. 20 mins later I get a call from the delivery guy asking if I can call him in. When I looked out the window he was standing behind his car. I told him he was harmless so he came up and delivered the food, the dog didn't move an inch, just followed the dude with his eyes.
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I've done this. Not for like super long, but maybe as much as 30 - 45 minutes or so after closing. I really had no idea you weren't allowed to tell me to leave – I assumed it was okay to sit there while people cleaned up, and that I would be told when they were ready to leave.
In my defense, I feel like that's how things would work if there wasn't an insane standard of "the customer is always right". Anyway, thanks for the tip. I won't be doing this again.
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Thank you for being receptive, obviously the restaurant industry is huge and carries but in the last few places I’ve worked people staying passed close has been a problem and there was no way to approach the customer about it. And honestly it really does add time for our work day. If the table is occupied, then we can’t clean your table, can’t put up chairs, can’t put on our music, can’t mop the dining room.
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Did you pay your check? If you got there late one of the best things you can do is pay your check (and complete the tip portion) right after close, even if you are still eating.
Sorting the money is often one of the longer tasks and so you can still help the staff get out someone quickly if you are still eating your food.
But yeah, the heavy cleaning: chairs up, sweeping and mopping can't be done until everyone is gone, so you are keeping the entire staff there working an extra "unpaid" 30-45 minutes.
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That's why I put in quotes. The person may only be paid $1.5-2.5 dollars for that extra time. I suppose you can give someone a dime for 8 hours and say they are still getting paid for that time.
In reality many places you have to clock out before you do your money (how the computers work) which means you work off the clock. Which isn't legal and technically you can insist for them to change your time 30 minutes every night, but no one really cares about $2, and it would just piss off the manager.
The way it works out in tips is you will make $150. You can make that in your scheduled 7 hours or you can make it in 8. Or you can have the server stay all night and they are still just making $150 in tips.
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I thought Elon was going to be more articulate. His speech indicates everything he says is going through a lot of filters in his mind.
As for Joe I expected more interesting topics and ideas. The whole podcast felt like he was being extremely safe. Flamethrowers, AI, Automation, cars, rockets, simulation theory, climate change, etc.
If you contrast it to the Neil Degrasse Tyson episode which explored the calendars, Manhattan Stonehenge, ancient navigation, his tweets about movies, it just seems like a press release from Musk Inc. Moreover, mosts guests are usually having a good time and laughing at crazy shit.
This episode was just two dudes talking...
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Another point and this one seems a bit silly, but the large pieces are huge, and I will usually still eat around 2 pieces either way. It can be nice for parties or work to have more pieces than huge pieces, but I digress.
P.S. Just recently rediscovered the Costco combination pizza. That is such a good deal, loaded with meat and veggies and is huge. Damn I am making myself hungry now...
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I suffer with this problem a lot, maybe some of my experience can help?
Try pumping yourself up mentally to do the task. Like just really hype it up in your mind, like, "Oh yeah, I'm totally gonna wash my dishes, it's a definite concrete thing that HAS to happen, I'm CHOOSING to do it." And maybe set like 10 alarms telling you to do the thing.
And if these things don't work, or even if they do help a bit, get someone else you trust who has an outside perspective to be accountable to. Ask them to check in every once in a while (if they're willing) to keep you on task, or to make sure you do it or start the thing.
I've found making a checklist by breaking a task down into smaller steps helps me TREMENDOUSLY. It makes it less of a big vague mountain of activity and turns it into something I can actually do and I see step by step what I need to do. It makes it MUCH easier to grasp the concept of what I need to do and everything the task entails.
Hope this helps. Best of luck and Godspeed.
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First, thanks for all the actually useful tips.
I was sort of making a (apparently bad) turn of words on OP's title. Like how would I find the impulse to do nothing? And doing something else is actually the solution...Follow me? Doesn't matter.
I just tend to procrastinate. A lot of the answers are good though and might help anyone anyway so thank you to those who saw it and answered it seriously.
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If the person has the money too. If you gift that to your children and you say they may play an hour a day, you should also make sure there are enough games so he can enjoy this one hour a day. There are games which have a great playtime to price ratio if you like them like rocjet league or minecraft, but other games not so much. Also if you buy them a console ask other people if they are interested to gift sone games of choice.
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Some games are free to play on the consoles these days, games can also be rented from the local library in some cases, as long as you have transportation to get to and from the library. Just make sure you include some kind of batteries or rechargable batteries for the controller and enough of them to last a long time if the controller doesn't have rechargable batteries, batteries are really expensive these days.
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The “Power” button on a microwave doesn’t actually turn down the power, it turns it off for a period of time. If cooking on high for one minute gives you a full 60 seconds of microwave radiation, cooking at 50% gives you thirty total seconds of full blast and 30 total seconds of rotating without actually cooking.
Those wait times allow the heat in the item being microwaved to spread more effectively. If the item you’re heating spreads heat well, like water, you’re good to go at full power. If it’s made of disparate frozen food, like a microwave burrito, you shouldn’t go over 30%.
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> If the item you’re heating spreads heat well, like water, you’re good to go at full power. If it’s made of disparate frozen food, like a microwave burrito, you shouldn’t go over 30%.
Part of the reason for this is that liquid water is heated very efficently by microwaves, while frozen water (ice) is barely heated at all. So when you microwave something that is frozen, almost all the heating is at the very surface where the ice has started to melt, and almost none on the interior. Also, with actual low viscosity water based fluids, the heating causes convection currents which help stir the fluid and allow the heat to disperse evenly. So yeah, longer at lower power, which allows the surface heating to be absorbed into the interior of the food while helping to prevent overcooking of the outside.
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Only if I'm going to be staying in there for a few days.
Jk.
But we had the microwave in the garage to reduce kitchen clutter (and because it's a 2.2 ft^(2) unit) and since it only added a door and 3 feet to the process of microwaving anything. Our old Hamilton Beach microwave never tripped the garage, but was also only a 900w microwave vs this 1200w inverter microwave. When I googled it I saw a lot of information about some (especially older) breakers being oversensitive and tripping because of the signature of the inverter microwave's power draw *(it mistakes it for a short).*
Also the house we're in was built in the late '70s and has fewer dedicated circuits than a newer home will - for instance, newer homes in the U.S. typically have a dedicated microwave circuit in the kitchen. Ours does not, and the entire kitchen and dining room (where my desk is) are one circuit. If I owned this place I'd have updated the electrical by now, but I don't. The master bedroom and master bathroom run off of the guest bathroom GFCI, so if anyone trips that our room goes dark. Lol
To be honest, I'm surprised the microwave doesn't trip the kitchen circuit since I've microwaved something while playing a game on my computer (pulling a kW if you include monitor power draw), running my 3d printer (\~200w), and having a floor lamp and laptop on and plugged in, plus whatever little things I'm forgetting. It doesn't really make sense, but my computer uses less power these days *(no more crossfire)* so I don't worry too much about it.
*I know this is way more response than your clever comment called for, but I find it all kind of interesting and tend to talk too much about things I find interesting (even mildly).*
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Yea cause that works all the time!
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I remember when I still lived at home our internet might as well have gone out completely. It was worse than a 56k modem and dropped off constantly, though every once in awhile for a few minutes we'd get normal speeds. So I called optimum to complain and they sent out a tech to help. .
Dude goes up to fiddle with the modems, speeds look good and he leaves. . . Nope, still the same shit. . .Over the course of about 2 months we were literally paying for unusable internet because even at 56k speeds it wasn't consistent enough of a connection to load things even slowly. Called them back 6 fucking times and every fucking time the same guy came out to do the same thing and than complain to me about our calls.
7th fucking time they send a different guy out who actually listens to what is going on and within 10 minutes figures out their wiring is fault underground and needs to be fixed - Had to completely tear up our yard and guess who still had to pay full price for 2 months of no internet?
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Verizon Fios has an ONT/Router all in one. It's the g2100 I believe. Probably so they can secure that rental money. I'm guessing OP has it or something similar.
My fiber runs into the living room and into a stand-up ONT which then has ethernet I can put into the older g1100 gateway, so I'd be good to switch it out if I wanted, but it's decent enough. I do have my own WAP though.
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This really isn't the case. My ISP's modem/router combo is a 32x8 Docsis 3.0 modem with AC router, and I could upgrade free to the 3.1 version if I bothered. So that's about $200 for the 3.0 version. I could buy similar and expect to have saved money after two years of no issues, but it's more convenient for me to rent. I make this decision as someone who's both sold networking equipment in retail and worked for an ISP. I'd rather they bear the burden of ownership if something goes wrong.
You could get an SB6141 and a tplink ac router for ~120 after tax, which is what I'd go with if saving money was the #1 concern, but that's the actual "already old tech" scenario.
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That is within reason. I used to have gigablast from Cox and was only getting ~400Mbps tops. Come to find the modem was faulty. My actual speed was ~980Mbps, which isn't a full gigabit, but within a reasonable margin. That margin is often stated in your agreement, and differs from speeds you may get during times of high usage in the area.
Also, their bandwidth is largely throttled depending on the customer and their chosen package, they can test lines without that throttle to make sure they are working properly.
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During the flooding in Louisiana in 2016, I helped a buddy and his wife get back into his flooded house while it was still flooded. This was essentially what happened. The flooding backed up the sewage in their house. They had 18” of water mixed with raw sewage. I told them that they had about 30 seconds to get their stuff and get out before they got really sick.
Pretty disgusting to witness.
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Yep. Pool noodle also helps hold the bag(s) in place. Cut the noodle to a length that will fit around your bucket. Then cut the noodle lengthwise down one side to create a channel to wedge it down over the top to the bucket.
Also don't pour a lot of kitty litter in at once. Put in a cup or two, do your business, and then layer another cup or two on top after each use until you need to change bags.
Slip the noodle off, tie off the bag (you probably should double bag. Kitty litter is heavy), and dispose of the closed bag.
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I don't want to be a downer, with all this for-free lectures and MOOCs around for a couple of years, has anyone **EVER** experienced some truly measurable success with those ?
All the BIG THINK guys at TED etc. always talk about how unneccessary big universites are since the raise of alternative learning platforms, but what often seems to be forgotten, imho, is that universities aren't in the business of giving useful information, but more in the business of giving degrees, which then lead to employment.
There might be some anecdotal evidence that one or two guys from the internet watched those MOOCs & had success with the exams, but to which effect ?
I strongly doubt that ANY employer (besides the usual startups, who would employ a lot of people just under the view point of paying as less as possible for the work they do) truly relies on your certificate of doing an online MOOCs.
But i'm open to be refuted.
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I worked at a company that did open source analysis for the US government on a contract basis. Several analysts took a MOOC for R programming. The client was happy about that and stated that fact. Not sure how that translated into money or contract security but anecdotally it was good for those employees job security versus others, and good for the company for prior performance rating when the contract went up for recompete.
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> which you can't know
...if I'm hiring for a project that requires Java, then I'll fact check you.
> I'm a more preferable candidate
Technically, you'd be more attractive than an open non-reader, but realistically, I'm more looking for expressions of your skills and interests. If you said that, but can't talk Java, who cares?
But someone who pulls out a Duolingo account, or self-study verification from respected institutions? Sure.
Honestly, I think your question is a little out-of-context (and indicative of a stats-gamer I would try to not hire, in general). The websites that let you self-train almost always have means of verification.
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I did a lot of them while job hunting. My understanding is that it shows initiative and willingness to keep learning, which is what you want in somebody working in tech. I’d say they’re a good compliment to university courses, but not a replacement. I mean, I had a background in math and statistical programming already. I just hadn’t done much outside of “traditional” stats. A course on using SVMs is a lot easier to understand when you’ve already taken math and stats courses.
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These aren't meant to substitute formal education, though they can if you plan on doing freelance work.
Let's say you have a degree in Mathematics or Physics, but want to learn some more practical skills from the Computing and Engineering fields (or vice versa).
Taking an online course can help you fill in missing gaps in your skill set, but not necessarily replace it.
Another thing is - they can help you realize whether you actually want to study a subject way ahead of signing to a university.
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> I don't want to be a downer, with all this for-free lectures and MOOCs around for a couple of years, has anyone EVER experienced some truly measurable success with those ?
Yes.
On the small side I'm a software developer that never went to school for game design and I learned a TON about game design and designed small games.
On the larger side I turned hobby time in to critical thinking time and it made me a better engineer. Now I can build thinks with measurably more complexity than before.
Basically I spent time learning things I wouldn't know might be useful. The odds are if you learn enough things and keep learning eventually you're going to learn something useful. I do this constantly. It's better than knowing what happened last season on name some TV show.
Constant learning has positive delta on life.
I've now founded 3 software companies. I broke even on one, sold one, and I'm hoping to sell the current one. Each company teaching me more I needed to know for the next.
As an employer, would I hire someone who studied in their own time under their own direction? Yes. The reason is simple. I know you have initiative to try and learn something. That's a skill surprisingly lacking in the population. I run a startup though so I'm willing to employ people for as cheap as possible. Even though I value your effort, I'm still going to feign not being impressed and offer a lower salary. I don't even have a salary.
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I don’t think that an education completely based on MOOCs will get you very far.
However, I’m currently following a Biophysics program at a major European tech university (went back to uni after working 7 years as a lawyer) and I was surprised to what extend students can get credits for MOOCs.
Not all MOOCs are allowed (obviously) but we are allowed to take up to 30 ECTS (out of 180 ECTS total) in relevant courses online. There is a list of pre-approved courses, but if you want to follow another one you can make a request to exam committee. I followed a bioinformatics MOOC that was hosted by another major university and it was actual very interesting and rather challenging.
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You don't need the certificate to show you took and passed the MOOC. I do a lot of MOOCs and at the end I just take a screenshot of the "progress" tab that shows my grades for the assignments then save them in a folder.
As to whether they benefit your career, I can say that the two most beneficial courses I took we're "Intro to Comp Sci using Python" and "introduction to Arduino" which helped me to automate some functions and data acquisition in our lab.
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>I don't want to be a downer, with all this for-free lectures and MOOCs around for a couple of years, has anyone
>
>EVER experienced some truly measurable success with those ?
YMMV, but I definitely had legit success as a result of the Objective-C programming class that Stanford offered. I now work full-time as a programmer in NYC making 6-figures as a direct result of taking that class.
More than any other field, I think online courses can most benefit those wanting to learn skilled trades, like computer science. Employers seeking software engineers are far more concerned about proving your ability and couldn't care less about the degree. If you're able to successfully code/whiteboard during interviews, you can surely get a job in software engineering from taking online courses.
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With all due respect, even if the people learning, only do it for entertainment reasons, that's infinitely better for society overall. Think about it, people who may never work in an engineering firm, let alone engineer something useful, know engineering. While it seems like a complete waste, the fact that people are entertaining themselves by increasing their knowledge is astonishing!
For kids in high school, and maybe even jr high and elementary, they have a resource that can help develop them beyond the confines of their school system. Need something more challenging that Mr HSCalculus Teacher's class? Here's a lecture on Engineering from MIT. ITs boring as hell, but it applies the concepts we learned in class to real life.
If MIT's courses get one person out of what would otherwise be a wasted, insurance salesman life, MIT's free courses is worth its weight in course books.
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First, I already have both a BS and MS in mechanical engineering.
For me, I’ve found these kind of classes, both on MIT OCW and those on EdX, are a good way to review things I’ve already learned, to fill in gaps in my knowledge or in some cases to explore more advanced topics that I find interesting.
For example, in 2015, I took a class through EdX called “Underactuated Robotics”, an advanced control systems class, taught by some of the leading experts in the field. Without going too deep into the details, it covered the basics of how to make robots move more naturally. If you’ve seen any of the robots made by Boston Dynamics, you’ve seen this stuff in action.
There’s no other way I’d ever have access to this kind of material and instruction.
I’ve also taken other classes in electronics since that’s something I often have to deal with at work, but wasn’t covered in school. As a result, while I don’t have a degree in electronics, I do have the knowledge, been able to apply it and have received opportunities that I would otherwise not have gotten.
This kind of learning isn’t going to supplant a conventional college degree anytime soon IMO, but it definitely has real benefits.
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Literally me lol. I just graduated undergrad with math and physics, but I planned on going to med school originally. Since I've changed my mind ice been exploring other options and noticed I am lacking in computing and data analysis skills. I'm currently taking edX courses to make up for this and I've been having a lot of success! I've already been able to apply a ton of the data analysis skills in my research lab!
My attitude towards these MOOC's is that they're like supplements. Like, I already went through the process of getting my degrees, so now I just need to find ways to learn new skills and apply them. I've been upfront about taking the edX courses on my resume and have them added under a "professional development" section, but only if I am confident in demonstrating those skills. And regardless of whether or not they look good to employers, I definitely agree that they can help you figure out what you actually want to do!
Edit: a word
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They're meant for students of shitty universities to get proper lectures and notes that are well explained by qualified professors. If you did all these lectures before you same class you should in theory be able to walk all over it minus a few details.
If you missed notes on Multi-variant calculus calc it's a great resource to look up a few subjects as shown in your syllabus and do reasonably well in them.
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I do actually like your definition of higher education, but do you really believe it in our current time ?
With such a huge wave of academics coming from the universities our societies must flourish like in the renaissance, because all of em are well rounded and capable citiziens.
But if i look closer at reality i see baristas with humanity degrees earned from a brainwash department serving coffee to people at starbucks.
Or in the best case working as a shrill HR lady terrorizing the other staff with some BS HR policy.
This whole "we need an educated population with as much academics as possible" is probably the biggest meme ever sold to the population.
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I have a BS in Chem. Eng. from Davis. I used the MIT lectures quite often to learn concepts that were, let's say, less than adequately explained by my professors. I don't think I would have made it through P Chem (quantum mechanics) without the MIT lectures! A lot of others in my study groups will say the same.
These are a fantastic resource for continuing education, and I still make use of them.
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My biggest problem is when people act like they are a replacement for university education. You'll have trouble finding even a lot of sophomore level courses online, but when I mention that my sister can't get a degree because she can't get approved for student loans people regularly point at Khan Academy. Bitch, EdX and Khan Academy and shit do not have junior level courses for my sister's math major, and you under-rate the usefulness of instructors in more complex courses to your own detriment.
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Used some of this online material/ classes / info to help me learn more about protein engineering, bioinformatic/ computer simulation for a medical school project many years ago. Have decent computer background from growing up with Dad as Engineer but no formal engineering background.
These things aren't meant to confer degree but if you want to gain a quick intro to a topic can peruse a topic through course material. It definitely helped me develop some interesting research. Won top prize at big research conference.
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I mean if you do nothing with the knowledge you get from those Tutorials/Courses it seem that they will be pretty useless, but if you go and do a project that can back you up when going for a job.
 
I am guilty of this, watching a lot of courses and tutorials and not really doing anything with what i learned, and i am going to copypaste a youtube comment that summarize the feeling:
"To get personal, for me it's about fear or laziness, which are often related. I want to feel like I'm doing something productive but I'm too afraid to dive into a project where I'm going to need to have the burden of making decisions / sacrifices and sweating through hard problems. If I'm watching a tutorial, I give up responsibility to an external force, and can passively watch while still feeling like I'm being productive."
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I have an undergraduate and two post graduate degrees (one is an MBA). I often half joke that they are only good to get your foot in the door, to get an interview. They have obviously helped me prepare for work but a lot of my day job was learned from the companies I worked for, learning on the job.
What I like about the free on-line material is that it helps to identify new (sometimes more current, sometimes older but new to me) ideas that I may be able to use. I could never add the learning to my CV but I could definitely add a new responsibility I may have acquired in my role that may have been helped, in part, by this sort of additional learning.
My job is one where this is possible. I’m sure many roles aren’t the same though.
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I self taught compsci/datascience through a combination of MIT opencourseware, free MOOCs and just building a bunch of stuff, and I'm now a reasonably successful software engineer working on AI systems a couple years later.
I never advertised the moocs on my resume or anything, but the stuff I built was interesting enough to get interviews, and the stuff I learned through opencourseware got me through technical interviews and helped me with projects in general.
Most people are kind of surprised and tell me they just assumed I studied compsci at a good school if it comes up.
It's all the same knowledge, literally all of it available for free on the internet, and there are other ways to prove you're competent than just getting an institution to say you jumped through their hoops, at least in practical fields like compsci or data science.
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To be honest, I sort of fell into through personal contacts. That's just how it goes sometimes. But if you already are in a field like engineering, there's a good chance you also have contacts you can mine for opportunity. Also, you already have a technical background so this will get you in the door at a lot of places even barring any connection. An engineering degree (which I'm assuming you have) and a claim to the proper skill set will get you some interviews. Highlight any programming projects that you've already done on the job, have any good working code from your personal projects visible on github/gitlab (learn git or some other versioning software if you don't already), and make sure you are conversant in the topics that you claim to know.
As someone who has a technical background, you are in a prime position to benefit from the courses the OP is talking about. These can help fill in the gaps and put a firmer foundation under any practical experience you have. I'd recommend [this course on algorithms](https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-006-introduction-to-algorithms-fall-2011/) as a great place for an intermediate programmer. This is the kind of theoretical material which is useful in practice and you get asked about in interviews. Ostensibly, the course is using Python, but it's mostly actually in pseudocode (as any algorithms course should be).
You also want to look into deepening your hands-on and practical knowledge with your language(s) of choice. What do you program in?
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I don't think those MOOCs are replacement of an education at an university. However, I do think that opening couses to public can lower the bar of obtaining knowledge (e.g. having someone explaining stuff to you like in school for free where a lot of people can't afford the tuition at university).
Also, the inability to prove a student has the ability to utilize or recall the materials taught in class is about same for a degree obtain in university or a certificate from MOOCs.
Effectively, a degree can only prove that a student has gone through the class material, and passed the exam same way like a certificate could from doing an online MOOC.
I think in the end, people going through MOOCs should have a mindset of obtaining knowledge rather than having the ability to show off your certificate. I guess that's also true for people attending university.
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> Even though I value your effort, I'm still going to feign not being impressed and offer a lower salary.
I've had startups play that game and I walked away because it was annoying and transparent. I would never work with someone who I thought wouldn't value me appropriately, and the labor market is tight so it's trivial for someone skilled to just walk away and go with someone who doesn't play games. That strategy just sounds like a way to filter out good candidates.
I took a startup position at a lower salary than I could make elsewhere, but it was because they were a really small team working on what I thought was a really interesting and underserved problem, I thought the odds of the company growing rapidly were high, they were straight up with me, and I thought they'd be cool on the ride up, not because they played some childish game of chipping away at my self esteem.
As a founder you should be able to inspire people, not just lean on them.
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A diploma is a ticket to a job market. If you have a degree, congrats, you might not get thrown in the trash right away. MOOCs do not offer that. However, if you already have a degree and want to pivot to a semi related career, or you are looking to be a freelancer, MOOCs are a great resource. In particular, you use the MOOC to learn how to do something, then you practice it and make something with it. Then, *that* goes on your resume/portfolio. There's much less success with them because people are not very self motivated, and MOOCs don't have the same kind of consequences behind them that accredited universities do. They also don't really force you to learn or do anything to get the certificate.
I'm a math major with very little formal training in computer science, but all of my advanced skills in programming have come from MOOCs, and the projects I completed are big parts of my resume. I currently work in software and I would attribute at least some of my success to the work I've done with MOOCs.
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I *believe* my wife when she says my hair isn't thinning.
The more educated a populace is the more capable/productive/useful they are is an undisputable fact.
That huge wave of academics could absolutely flourish and usher in another age of development/progress. Thing is we are well past the point of tabletop breakthrough (random person working by themselves on their own increasing sparse free time makes a thing that is a fundemental breakthrough in other existing thing). We have tons of trained and capable biologists but not nearly enough labs for them to play in. That's the case with most sciences in the U.S. Even the high up creme de la creme of scientists have to spend at minimum a third to half their time ~~begging for money~~ requesting grants to keep their work alive. Let alone produce any breakthroughs in their particular research.
That is a direct result of the class/power structures and their self asserted control over academic and the economic realms of society. From the perspective of those sitting at the top a continuously more educated populace is a [potential threat](https://youtu.be/ILQepXUhJ98) to their(and I can't stress this enough) *self appointed* positions of power and privilege.
As they see it. [One of the bewildering paradoxes of our time is the extent to which the Enterprise system tolerates, if not participates in, it's own destruction](http://law2.wlu.edu/powellarchives/page.asp?pageid=1251).
Since the 1970's a very effective class war has been waged against higher and public education to put control over it firmly into the hands of economic elite to drive that education to serve the interests of those elite. That's where those worthless humanity programs come from. Whose "best" case is to become a manager of workers(HR) in a system that prioritizes the well-being of the (owners of) institution over the workers.
*We* absolutely need an educated population.
Trying to downplay education as a unnecessary privilege(as opposed to an important inherent right) has been the meme force fed to the populace by those at the top for the past 40+ years at this point.
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The core of my resume when I took the job I have now was a startup I built with a friend around a product I built on my own that failed (low power IoT hardware platform and webapp for automated logistics), another project I made it to the national finals of a reasonably large pitch competition for, and a reasonably large hackathon (30hr straight tech building competition) I won.
When I interviewed here I brought a prototype with me to show them and had already shown the recruiter a video of the remote hardware and webapp all working together with an explanation of how it worked.
Tech has a lot of opportunities to prove your skills without a degree, although I don't think that same strategy would apply outside of tech.
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There's no way you can do the three hour labs or all day field trips I did for one of my degrees. Just isn't going to happen at home and watching a video recording of a lab or field trip, even if they existed out there, isn't really giving you proper project work experience. The deadlines at university aren't pretend, you fail if you don't meet them. You fail if your project falls apart and you have nothing to show for the marking criteria. If you cheat on the exam you fail too. Lots of opportunities to fall at university that you don't face at home. University is like having a job but you pay for the experience instead of being paid for it. Talking science here, I don't know how hard the humanities is or is not.
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I took the intro to programming course tought by professor Gutag. I feel like that course alone was responsible for me getting my first programming job in terms of the knowledge it gave me. I have no formal education other than moocs, and I gotta say that I wouldn't be where I am now without them (am a software engineer at a fortune 500 company). O'Riley books also helped quite a bit whenever I wanted to learn some specific thing.
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Perhaps in an ideal world, but as someone who skipped higher education and went right into the workforce, it's becoming very difficult to move up without that formal education. So now I'm going back to school.
I went into construction and then construction management and absolutely hated it with every fiber of my being so now I have 5 years of wasted experience. Tough to move from construction to a technical field with no certificates or degrees so these online courses might be a good way for me to supplement my resume. At the same time I enjoy learning so I'm not too shook up about having to go back
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So I work in a nanotechnology lab. We make different types of nanoparticles for treating different cancers. Typically, each batch of nanoparticles we make have hundreds of thousands of particles, so it's an excellent data set to work with. We have to describe them based on their physical properties like size, shape, charge, etc. which can get really messy when you're working with many different types of nanoparticles.
I took the Data analysis for Excel series and found that I can drastically reduce the time it takes me to analyze the data if I use pivot tables/charts, Excel data models, slicers, and some more advanced features in Excel. This is really helpful too because I am usually the one who presents our work at symposiums, so the courses gave me an entirely new platform to present my work. So far, everyone has loved the pivot chart/slicer combo and everyone else in my lab is having me teach them how to do this! I also was able to more accurately represent my data with the lessons on statistics in the last course of the series.
Btw, I just audited these courses. There's no difference in the education for paying for the certificate, so I just screenshot my overal score when I'm done with a course, and paste the image to a Word doc. That way, if I'm not asked to demonstrate skills in an interview, I'll at least have something to show them.
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You are both right and wrong. Many people,including myself, have gotten jobs that are not related to their degree. This is because a degree gets you an interview. To go past that, including advancing in the job, requires either knowledge or experience. Since most people, especially graduates, have little to no experience that is where knowledge comes in, in the form of alternative learning like this.
Tl;dr a degree gets you in the job. Knowledge helps you go past that.
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Not OP but in a very similar position, work for a mid-large sized enterprise currently. I have an associate's in computer information systems which didn't teach me anything nor ever helped me land a gig. Self teaching through courses like these has been a god send since I would never have been able to afford a bachelor's where I was in my life prior to full time work.
I do plan on going back for one at some point, though.
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Yeah and I very well could have spent those 5 years earning a degree so then I'd have college debt instead of the semi useless experience. But at least I'd have a 4 year degree. Tons of jobs im looking at don't really care what bachelor's you have as long as it's a science/business and not an arts degree.
Anyways just trying to make a point that it's not wrong to look at education as a means to an end.
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I honestly don’t follow you.
MOOCs made self-education much better. It’s easier now to get ramped up as a self-taught programmer and plenty of them are in the industry.
I don’t think MOOC certificates would ever replace 4+ year degrees. I don’t think they are meant to.
Incidentally, even with degrees, it’s not a slam dunk for a job. You need to demonstrate you can actually do the job.
I don’t know what I’m refuting. If you are saying MOOC certificates are worthless then I can’t refute that cause it’s true. It’s not the paper that matters.
You’re not really interested in the subject matter to begin with. Your concerns aren’t whether the material is relevant and up-to-date or what specialty you’d go into. You just want to know if you sank a few thousand hours into this, regardless of your interest level or proficiency, if you’d be able to land a job with just the paper that comes out the end, like you’re at a degree/certificate vending machine contemplating which button to press.
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Honestly the biggest thing I have found an education at a school like MIT gives you is the people. You are amongst some of the smartest and most motivated students in the world, and being taught by and associating with people at the top of their field. You can do projects and start startups with them, and give/receive recommendations for some of the best jobs out their.
The classes themselves are not the most valuable part of the education. I think that's a large part of the issue with these education replacements, they really don't address that aspect. To have the best chance of succeeding you really want to immersed in an intellectually focused and motivated environment.
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I'm a scifi and fantasy author and have had a lot of success with these courses. I already have a degree and dramatic conservatory training.
While researching and writing *Astral Fall* I took the following courses in full for a certificate:
- AstroTech: University of Edinburgh via Coursera
- Justice: Harvard via Edx <-- highly, highly recommended!
- Paradoxes of War: Princeton via Coursera (audit b/c no cert offered)
- Social Psychology: Wesleyan via Coursera
And I dipped in on other classes like The War for the Greater Middle East (Edx) which was delivered by war scholar Andrew Bacevich, and anything to do with tech or bio ethics. Usually I would have had to hunt down syllabi for recommended reading and maybe set up a quick chat with some of these scholars to learn more during the research phase -- and that's if they had the time and were willing. Instead I took the class and had access to online office hours.
Additionally I had support from The Science and Entertainment Exchange in the form of a science advisor and visited NASA Goddard.
What I hope to illustrate with this post:
- I second everyone here who says that Edx and Coursera are supplements to degree work and other professional training and research.
- There are careers other than programming/tech that are using these platforms.
- Self-improvement is also a worthy goal. There were retired service members from around the world in my Paradoxes of War course. They were they to enrich themselves and added a lot to the forums. I was particularly interested in their stories and reflections because I was interested in warrior experiences and they were there to reevaluate their experiences. A typical sociology classroom would not have this mix of students. And when I brushed up on social psychology on Coursera I was delighted to find that the entire course had an extra layer: it was a global experiment in and of itself. I came for one module but stayed for the entire course.
- Finally, in hiring other professionals, I would definitely be interested to see the Harvard Justice course on any resume -- especially for someone who does not have a humanities degree. It's a normative ethics course that uses modern case studies and thought experiments, it's excellent, and deciding "What's the right thing to do?" applies to any career.
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I went to art school (currently working in the entertainment industry) but I loved science and physics as well growing up, and have picked it up again as a hobby. I wouldn't want to necessarily work in a science related field, but these courses are perfect for someone who just wants to learn for the enjoyment of learning.
I only say this as I don't think the value of these courses should be measured completely on monetary success.
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I make 69k with a high school diploma, starting. Not going anywhere but up.
It’s all about the type of work you’re doing.
If I end up needing a degree, fine. But I don’t see that happening as my career field is extremely stable, and my plan is to create residual income not depend upon someone paying me.
If I got fired tomorrow I’d go for a trade. Electricians in my city make 98.8k without overtime after they’re journeymen. The training is paid and you’ll have an associates degree by the time you finish it. All depends on the type of work you choose to do.
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LifeProTips
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There’s two parts to this. In computer science in particular employers can lookup your open source contributions and see how well you wrote. In other industries you can demonstrate your talent or create your own business as well. Showing success is far more effective than stating your success.
However it is far easier to get a job if you get a recommendation from someone who works there. Personally my degree didn’t help me very much, but the contacts I made at co-op placements are the reason I was hired at my current employer and my previous employer.
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